Vintage Ride up Mt. Hamilton in San Jose, CA. April 27th.
 

Hey everyone,
Planning a vintage bike ride to the top of Mount Hamilton in San Jose, CA. The ride will be on Saturday, the 27th of April and will start at 10am at the corner of Alum Rock Ave. and Mt. Hamilton Rd. There's parking right on the corner. It's roughly a 36 mile ride up and back, with the worst grades around 6% with just under 5000 ft of climbing. There's a park halfway through the ride for water and bathrooms (Grant Park) and vending machines at the top in the Observatory for drinks and snacks (also a water fountain for refilling bottles). About halfway through the ride, it levels out and there's some downhill into a valley (Grant Park) so you get a climbing break. Ride at your own pace and rain cancels, but hopefully the rain will be long gone by then!
Here's the ride with GPS:
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/157531483

From the incredibly talented Frank Peter Canon:
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...40a06b38c0.jpg

Not C & V, but you can also buy the jersey at the gift shop. I came from the other side, and it was a long 95 mile day from Patterson.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...09571147d8.jpg

I'm reminded that the keeper of my zero bike and multiple time recidivist on my TdMIL rides, [MENTION=543270]BoltBreaker[/MENTION] is a graduate of Lick-Wilmerding High School.

That Lick guy got around.

Andy did suggest we ride up Hamilton someday, maybe he'll bite on this one.

He had a lot of money and looks like he knew how to spend it! :) I believe he's buried at the top of the mountain! Yep a quick search...
"In his last deed he chose the site atop Mount Hamilton, and was buried there in 1887 under the future site of the telescope, with a brass tablet bearing the inscription, "Here lies the body of James Lick".

I've ridden Hamilton many times, both from Alum Rock and from Livermore. It's a great ride. Unfortunately I'll probably be in the UK on this date, otherwise I'd be there for sure. On weekends they almost always run tours of the original telescope (the one James is buried under) on a roughly every other hour basis. I've done this several times and they are always very interesting and the content varies a lot depending on who is giving the tour. Well worth the roughly hour you spend on the tour. I highly recommend that you try to catch one of these before heading back down.

Sure, James Lick's name is all over the Bay Area. But this Wilmerding guy...

Lick-Wilmerding High School sounds like a Monty Python sketch. My buddy Andy swears it's a real high school, but I've know him long enough to know his life has a lot of similarities to a Monty Python sketch.

I was debating doing this ride (starting at least two hours before the rest of you so I might actually reach the top before you all start back down), but have realized that I have a prior engagement all that weekend. Oh, darn!


And I leave to you all to decide for yourselves whether my "oh, darn" is sarcastic or not.

I'll be one month into a surprise sabbatical and beings I grew up riding Mt Hamilton and around the South Bay and California I would love to make this ride! Decisions...decisions...

Dale B Phelps
Montagna lunga Colorado USA

We'll miss you, Richard! And I'm going with "sarcastic". :)

Since you'll be missing the ride, and you'll be in the UK, you'll have to make up for it by doing some riding in the Peak District while you're over there. I hear they have some nice climbs in those parts. :)

Lick-Wilmerding HS is in San Francisco, with typically 500 students from predominantly wealthy families.
James Lick is two miles south of Mt Hamilton Road. It opened in 1950 as the first high school serving the area.
I attended and graduated from the latter in the seventies. Wonderful school back then, but since the 90's it plummeted in every aspect.
As a teen, I routinely rode to the top and many turnaround points in between. Tough ride when one chooses a rapid pace.
Doing it on a vintage bike these days means a seven pound handicap and possibly harder gearing. Good luck for everyone accomplishing the feat.

I won't be across the pond. Actually, I will be in in Sacramento, probably with little or no opportunity to ride. Kind of ironic, huh?

Edit: Oops - you weren't responding to me. It would help if I actually read stuff before responding . . . . :o

Not cool! You just made me spit my tea all over my keyboard! :)

I wonder if Grant Peterson will be on this ride.

Ha! My plan is actually start at Manchester Airport, ride through the Peak District then the Yorkshire Dales on my way to the Lake District. In the Lake District the plan is to ride Velo Retro, after which I will head for Scotland. We'll see if all this comes to pass though.

Hmmmmm. I last (and first, for that matter) went up Mt Hamilton on 1 January 2000. I still have the bike I rode, which is surely vintage by now!

That sounds like an amazing trip!

That sounds great. My calendar is clear on the 27th so I’ll try to be there. I’ve lived in the Bay Area since ‘96, and have yet to try the Mt. Hamilton climb. I’ve made it up Mt. Tam & Mt. Diablo, so this would complete the Bay Area tall-peak trifecta.

Someday someone should put together a 3 day event for all three peaks. Maybe one per weekend in the fall? Or for the ambitious, consecutive days. I'd travel down there for that.

Never been up Mt. Tam. It's on my "to do" list. Hamilton doesn't have that steep pitch (the ramp) at the end like Diablo does, so it's not as devilish. :)

If you're going to plan something like that, you might as well throw in Mt Umunhum. Don't want anyone going home thinking they didn't get enough climbing :)

One time a long time ago, almost a past life, I did all three in one day..not on a C&V bike though :-/

https://www.strava.com/activities/773580

Guy

Holy cow! That's pretty amazing.